More about the Siemer Institute for Family StabilityImproving academic stability for children

PostJuly 6, 2015

The Siemer Institute is based in Ohio and funds United Ways around the country to improve academic stability for school-aged children. The funding they provide is to be used by local partners to address the financial stability of at-risk households, with a particular focus on housing stability. The aim is to prevent children from having to make disruptive moves in the middle of their school year.

The three-year grant we are receiving from the Siemer Institute will allow for the hiring of one full-time staff person who will be based in the schools as a financial and housing stability case manager for parents/guardians who self-identify and/or who are identified by school-based staff as at risk of financial/housing instability. The funds will also support a part-time assistant for the case manager to help with handling of administrative matters. The case management work will be a combination of immediate crisis assistance and planning for longer-term household financial and housing stability; the goal is for the adults to work with the case manager for 18 months.

We have identified the Robla School District in North Sacramento as the initial site for this work. Our hope is that as the project is successful in its early years, we will be able to leverage additional funds to expand to more schools in need in our region in the future.

Our initial annual goal is to work with 50 households per year, with an estimated 100 children in those households, 68 percent of whom will be school-aged.

Click here to download the outcomes that we have set with the Siemer Foundation as initial annual targets for the project work. Highlighted outcomes are required by the Siemer Institute; additional outcomes listed are ones we have selected from Siemer’s list of optional outcome targets.

We look forward to sharing stories of families we’ve helped in the coming months.